Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Lucketts Was Fabulous

I know I'm a little late with this update, but I was wiped out on Monday and still tired yesterday.
It was a really good really wonderful kind of exhaustion though. It was my best sale ever!!!!

The weather made the Thursday/Friday set up challenging. It had rained earlier in the week and the ground was soggy on Thursday. A big thank you to Rita from The Pink Cottage who told me not to set up my tent. She said that the rain would collect on the tent and that the weight of it would ruin the tent. We put some things under tarps and decided to come with the other inventory on Friday. What great advice that was! The weather man was correct and on Thursday evening we had a heavy storm with wind. When we arrived Friday there were bent and collapsed tents everywhere and the mud was suck your shoes off muck.

Kudos to Heather and the entire Lucketts team who rolled with the weather punches and made it work. Hay arrived and was very effective on the puddles and they also provided plenty of help with loading, unloading, and in my case, help with changing my location to a drier spot. Thank you.
We all agreed that our carpet of hay in our booths added to the charm of the event.

Friday the sun appeared and shined throughout the entire weekend. I sold so much that with the exception of a few items I have to say that it was very close to a sell out. When my husband and son arrived Sunday evening to pack me up they were very happy to see that there wasn't much to take home.

Garden items were a big seller. I sold planters and fences and many pieces of garden furniture.
I think I could have sold these garden rockers ten times.

Vintage Garden Rocking Chairs

This next picture is the before.

I worked with them in pieces, which was the only way to make sure that all the joints had paint.

They were sanded, primed, painted, and then assembled. I used Valspar exterior high gloss white made to be used on metal.

I had never used Valspar before and I have to say that it went on very smoothly.

Everyone loved the houndstooth fabric. We decided that it worked like a neutral.

Houndstooth Fabric and Contrasting Cording

I always mix new with old and I have to say that I also sold so many new items too.
The ever popular octopus and my crown for jewelry storage was popular too.
But I have to say that the giclee of the goat was the show stopper.
I had him hanging from my tent and his personality drew many customers into my booth.
I can't tell you how many people came back to buy him and were disappointed that he had sold.

Goat Giclee

I have to also give a big thank you and hug to my daughter, Sara, who always comes
and helps me with the Saturday crowd. I always appreciate her math skills and make sure
that she writes the tickets and that I wrap and chat.
You rock Sara.

And of course a huge thank you to all the customers who braved the mud and the parking difficulties.
I loved meeting all of you and hope to see you soon at our Sweet Clover Sales.

What I learned about setting a space in the mud:

If you set up your tent and rain is predicted, tarp the top of the tent so the rain will roll off
and not collect in the spaces between the supports and collapse it.

I used furniture bed risers and put an old shutter---which I later sold---on top of the bed risers. I used the surface of the raised shutter as a table and kept my stuff out of the mud.

THE BEST IDEA EVER was that I purchased MANY plastic cups and
dropped the legs of my furniture into the plastic cups.